White Sea–Baltic Canal, Russian Belomorsko-baltiysky Kanal, system of rivers, lakes, and canals in northwestern Russia that connects the White Sea to Lake Onega, where it joins the Volga-Baltic Waterway.

The White Sea–Baltic Canal is 141 miles (227 km) long, 23 miles (37 km) of which is manmade. It was constructed between 1930 and 1933, largely by penal labour. From Povenets, at the northern end of Lake Onega, the canal runs northward to Lake Vygozero (using seven locks), from which the canalized Vyg River (with 12 additional locks) leads to the White Sea.

Lake Onega unites the canal with the Volga-Baltic Waterway, through which ships can reach the Baltic Sea and the Volga River itself. The system, which can take ships of seagoing size, has both strategic and commercial significance, for it shortens the sea passage from St. Petersburg to Arkhangelsk by 2,500 miles (4,000 km). The principal cargo on the system is timber, much of it for paper mills and timber-working enterprises along the route.

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second largest lake in Europe, situated in the northwest part of the European portion of Russia, between Lake Ladoga and the White Sea. It covers an area of 3,753 square miles (9,720 square km). It is 154 miles (248 km) long; its greatest width is 50 miles (80 km); and its greatest depth is about...

...as well. The Syrtsov group (see below) held the new industries to be “eyewash,” and there was certainly great emphasis on the propaganda side. Some undertakings were ill-considered: the Baltic–White Sea Canal, supposedly completed in 1933, employed some 200,000–300,000 forced labourers but proved almost useless. On the other hand, the great Dneproges dam was a generally...

...links are the Volga-Don Canal, 63 miles long and completed in 1952, and the Moscow-Volga Canal, built between 1932 and 1937, which flows 80 miles from the Volga to the Moskva River at Moscow. The White Sea–Baltic Canal, built in 1931–33, runs from Belomorsk on the White Sea through the canalized Vyg River across Lake Vyg and through a short canal to Povenets at the northern end of...